The present invention relates to lasers and, more particularly, to a laser having a protective mechanism for terminating its output beam without requiring the power for such laser to be disconnected.
For safety reasons, it is desirable to be able to prevent the output beam of a laser from issuing beyond the laser, without requiring termination of the power sustaining the lasing action. In this connection, whenever the power for a laser is turned on, the laser must warm up to thermal equilibrium before proper lasing action can be obtained. Thus, if the use of a laser is an intermittent use, as is often the case in research, it is common for the laser to be left running between uses in order to avoid the delay associated with warm-up times. This results in an increased chance of unintended exposure to the laser output beam. The likelihood of such an event happening would be materially decreased if means were included for terminating a laser beam without also having to terminate power to the laser.
The obvious approach to preventing a laser beam from issuing from a laser without turning off the power is to block the beam as it leaves the laser. Such a solution, however, is not as simple as it may seem. A laser beam is wholly made up of radiant energy which will be absorbed by any structure which effectively blocks the same. This means that a cooling arrangement or other energy dissipating system must be provided as part of the block in order to prevent it from being harmed by the energy of the output beam.